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22 sarbapriya ray&ishita aditya ray -238-251

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Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online)Vol.2, No.4, 2011 Role and Effectiveness of Public Distribution System in Assuring Food Security in India: An Appraisal Sarbapriya Ray (Corresponding Author) Assistant Professor, Shyampur Siddheswari Mahavidyalaya, University of Calcutta, India. E-mail:sarbapriyaray@yahoo.com Ishita Aditya Ray Assistant Professor, Bejoy Narayan Mahavidyalaya, Burdwan University, India. E-mail:ishitaaditya@ymail.comAbstract:Despite huge stocks of food grains and age old system of public distribution, hunger and malnutrition stillpersist in various parts of India. The difference across states has also complicated matters further to thedetriment of the poor. At this very outset, India is facing the problem of food insecurity for quite some longperiod of time. Food security is one of the basic criteria for the formation and improvement of humancapital and also productivity of human being. In precise term, food security is supposed to exist when allpeople , at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient ,safe and nutritious food to meet theirdietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. The most important medium throughwhich government ensures food security at micro level is the Public Distribution System (PDS). But, inIndia, the working of public distribution system and other government policies have not been successful inachieving food security at the desired level. In this backdrop, this paper tries to analyse the food securitycondition of the country during the last few decades and the working of PDS with some macro measures.More specifically, this paper tries to identify food insecure population of the country, analyse theavailability, storage, procurement of food grain , assess the effectiveness of PDS, identify the discrepanciesin the system, find ways to remove the anomalies and to make the delivery mechanism more effective.Key words: Food, security, PDS, India.1. Introduction:Food security is a subject which closely touches upon the well being of the majority of our people. Theproblems which our country is facing today on food front are immense. Sound evidence in dealing with theproblems is not lacking. Here, we have assembled together a great deal of ideas which could providedirection as to how the nation should proceed. Hunger is on the rise. The facts about hunger are shockingwhen we pay attention to the fact that one in seven people in this world do not get enough food to stayhealthy every day. An estimated 923 million people in the world go hungry every day. The FAO (Food andAgriculture Organization of the United Nations) estimates that 1.02billion people are suffering fromchronic hunger in the world, mostly in Africa and south Asia, meaning that almost one sixth of humanity issuffering from hunger. Despite the good economic performance, with over200 million people who are foodinsecure, India is home to the largest number of hungry people in the world. International Food PolicyResearch Institute sheds renewed light on the acute Indian hunger situation. The Global Hunger Index 2009ranks India at the bottom with 65th position (out of 84 countries)with a GHI of 23.90, which the indexcharacterizes as” alarming” food security situation. The time has come to demonstrate that together we canact against the root causes of food insecurity and make a difference to the lives of the hungry people of theworld. This news letter highlights some of the contemporary perspectives on food insecurity in India andattempts to in cite the readers to respond to the compounding crises. We together need to serve as a catalystfor an action to ensure “food security for all people, at all times, to have physical and economic access to 238

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Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online)Vol.2, No.4, 2011sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and preferences for an active and healthylife.” Therefore, a large section of population in developing countries like India largely in backward stateshas limited access to food in terms of their entitlement or supply of food grains in the food deficit areas. Itthus requires a strong public policy to arrange for procurement and proper distribution of essential items tomeet the necessities of general public at their affordable price and fulfill their nutritional requirements. ThePublic distribution system (PDS) in India has been maintained to reach the essential commodities mainlythe food items to all sections of population especially the poorest of the poor to give them, security of foodgrains and also to fulfill their basic minimum needs at some reasonable cost. The primary objective is toprovide partial support to the daily basic requirements of the people at some reasonable rate. But thegalloping change in agrarian scenario in India over past few decades and time to time changes in policiesregarding prices and allocation of items may raise question: whether PDS should be the maintainedproperly or extended further to bring more equitable distribution or abolished and market be given a freehand to decide on the demand-supply mechanism.What is food security? Food security means availability, accessibility and affordability of food to all people at all times. The poorhouseholds are more vulnerable to food insecurity whenever there is a problem of production ordistribution of food crops. Food security depends on the Public Distribution System (PDS) and governmentvigilance and action at times, when this security is threatened.Food is something that gives you the energy to function and keeps you alive.. But food security meanssomething more than getting two square meals. . In this context it is useful to start by looking at thedefinition of food security given by the Rome Declaration on World Food Security at the World FoodSummit, held in 1996. As per the Declaration “food security exists when all people, at all times, havephysical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and foodpreferences for an active and healthy life.”Food security has following dimensions:(a) availability of food means food production within the country, food imports and the previous yearsstock stored in government granaries.(b) accessibility means food is within reach of every person.(c) affordability implies that an individual has enough money to buy sufficient, safe and nutritious food tomeet ones dietary needs.Thus, food security is ensured in a country only if (1) enough food is available for all the persons (2) allpersons have the capacity to buy food of acceptable quality and (3) there is no barrier on access to food.Who are food-insecure?Although a large section of people suffer from food and nutrition insecurity in India, the worst affectedgroups are landless people with little or no land to depend upon, traditional artisans, providers of traditionalservices, petty self-employed workers and destitutes including beggars. In the urban areas, the foodinsecure families are those whose working members are generally employed in ill-paid occupations andcasual labour market. These workers are largely engaged in seasonal activities and are paid very low wagesthat just ensure bare survival.This article is divided into the following subsections: section 2 depicts methodology, results and analysisare contained in section 3, and section 4 presents some suggestions for restructuring PDS and ultimatelysection 5 presents concluding remarks. 239

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Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online)Vol.2, No.4, 2011 Figure:1 Understanding the concept of Food Security Security Food Insecurity Availability Lack of Accessibility Acceptability Adequacy Availability To all people At all time Chronic Transitional Sufficient safe Nutritious High degree of vulnerability Dietary needs Food Hunger Famine preferences Survival Starvation Active life Malnutrition Healthy life Underweight Child Mortality Production,Distribution,Consumption2. Methodology:This article is an exploratory research article based on data and statistical records published byGovernment houses, statistical institutes. This paper tries to analyse the food security condition of Indiaduring the last few decades and the working of Public Distribution System (PDS) with some macromeasures. More specifically, this paper tries to identify food insecure population of the country , analysethe availability, storage, procurement of food grain , assess the effectiveness of PDS, identify the 240

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Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online)Vol.2, No.4, 2011discrepancies in the system, find ways to remove the anomalies and to make the delivery mechanism moreeffective.3. Result and Analysis:3.1.The Public Distribution System in India:The public distribution system or PDS is a rationing instrument that enables households to have specifiedquantities of selected commodities at subsidized prices. Public distribution was first started in 1939 as awar-time rationing measure. The British government introduced it in Bombay and later extended it to sixother cities and a few other regions. The drought and food shortages of the mid-sixties highlighted the needfor strengthening and continuing with a system of food distribution and the PDS was made a universalscheme in the 1970s. Thus, from its inception as a rationing scheme in big cities during World War II, thePDS was converted into a universal programme for the provision of cheap food and made a component ofthe strategy to alleviate poverty.There have been four phases, broadly speaking, in the history of the PDS in India (Swaminathan, 2000). The first phase was from its origins to 1960, a period when the system was expanded to other cities.During the first phase, distribution through the PDS was generally dependent on imports of food grain. The second phase, from 1960 to 1978, was one which saw major organizational changes. Specifically,in response to the food crisis of the mid-1960s, the government of India took a holistic approach to foodsecurity, and set up the Agricultural Prices Commission and the Food Corporation of India in order tostrengthen domestic procurement and storage. The third phase, from 1978 to 1991, was marked by large-scale expansion of the PDS, supported bydomestic procurement and stocks. The fourth phase, from 1991 to the present, is one in which the policy of universal PDS has beenreplaced by a targeted policy in line with the objectives of economic liberalization. Thus, over the entireperiod, the PDS grew from a rationing scheme in selected cities to a national universal programme of fooddistribution and then to a policy targeted at the income-poor.Historically, the objectives of the PDS have been (Bapna, 1990):• maintaining price stability,• increasing the welfare facilities for the poor (by providing access to basic foods at reasonable prices to thevulnerable population),• rationing during situations of scarcity, and• keeping a check on private trade.It is clear that some of these objectives are less important today than in the past. While rationing is not veryrelevant today, the first two objectives remain very important. In fact, maintaining price stability is crucialin the post-liberalization period when private traders have been given a freer hand and when internationalprice fluctuations can more easily affect domestic prices. In the context of widespread malnutrition andinflation in food prices, access to basic foods at reasonable prices remains an important policy intervention. Public Distribution System (PDS) is the most important step taken by the Government of India (GoI)towards ensuring food security. In the beginning the coverage of PDS was universal with no discriminationbetween the poor and non-poor. In most parts of the country, up to 1997, the PDS was universal and allhouseholds, rural and urban, with a registered residential address were entitled to rations. Eligiblehouseholds were given a ration card that entitled them to buy fixed rations of selected commodities. Theexact entitlement (quantity, range of commodities and prices) varies across States. The commodities are 241

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Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online)Vol.2, No.4, 2011made available through a network of fair-price shops. In 2006, there were a total of 0.48 million fair-priceshops in the country. Private agents and co-operatives ran these shops and a few were state-owned. Therewere a total of 222.2 million families with ration cards in the country and, on average, one fair price shopserved 454 ration cards. Over the years, the policy related to PDS has been revised to make it more efficient and targeted. In1992, Revamped Public Distribution System (RPDS) was introducted in 1,700 blocks in the country. Thetarget was to provide the benefits of PDS to remote and backward areas. From June 1997, in a renewedattempt, Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) was introduced to adopt the principle of targeting the‘poor in all areas’. It was for the first time that a differential price policy was adopted for poor and non-poor. Further, in 2000, two special schemes were launched viz., Antyodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) and theAnnapurna Scheme (APS) with special target groups of ‘poorest of the poor’ and ‘indigent senior citizens’,respectively. The functioning of these two schemes was linked with the existing network of the PDS. Someimportant features of PDS are summarized in Table 1.[Insert Table-1 here]The PDS has proved to be the most effective instrument of government policy over the years in stabilisingprices and making food available to consumers at affordable prices. It has been instrumental in avertingwidespread hunger and famine by supplying food from surplus regions of the country to the deficit ones. Inaddition, the prices have been under revision in favour of poor households in general. The system,including the minimum support price and procurement has contributed to an increase in food grainproduction and provided income security to farmers in certain regions. Today, the country is facing a paradoxical situation. The stock of food grains available with thegovernment agencies as on 1-7-2001 was 61.96 million tonnes, which constituted of 22.75 million tonnesof rice and 38.92 million tonnes of wheat. This level of stock was well above the buffer stock normsprescribed by the government. Thus, the problem today on the food front is not one of scarcity but that ofmanaging the surplus. While the FCI godowns are overflowing with grain, there are regions in the countryaffected by drought and floods yearning for larger supplies of food grains. It is now recognized thatavailability of food grains is not a sufficient condition to ensure food security to the poor. According to Sen(1981), the poor are vulnerable, because they do not have adequate means or entitlements to secure theiraccess to food, even when food is available in local or regional markets. In addition to availability of foodgrains it is also necessary that the poor have sufficient means to purchase food. The capacity of the poor topurchase food can be ensured in two ways. You can either raise the level of incomes of the poor or you cansupply food grains to the poor at subsidized prices. Employment generation programmes for the poor triesto ensure that the poor have sufficient purchasing power. The Public Distribution System (PDS) tries tosupply food grains to the poor at subsidized prices. With a network of more than 4.62 lakh Fair Price Shops(FPS) distributing annually commodities worth more than Rs 30,000 crore, to about 16 crore families, thePDS in India is perhaps the largest distribution network of its type in the world. This huge network can playa more meaningful role only if the system translates the macro level self-sufficiency in food grainsachieved by the country into micro level, i.e. by ensuring availability of food for the poor households. However, the PDS as it stood earlier, was widely criticized for its failure to serve the population belowthe poverty line, its urban bias, negligible coverage in the states with the highest concentration of the ruralpoor and lack of transparent and accountable arrangements for delivery. Realizing this, the governmentstreamlined the PDS, by issuing special cards to families Below Poverty Line (BPL) and selling food grainsunder PDS to them at specially subsidized prices with effect from June, 1997.3.2. Targeted PDS: Issues Involved in Implementation of TPDS:In order to curtail the food subsidy, the Government of India introduced the Targeted PDS (TPDS)in 1997,with the advice given in an influential World Bank document (World Bank, 1996) (GOI, 1997). The policy 242

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Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online)Vol.2, No.4, 2011initiated targeting of households on the basis of an income criterion, that is, used the income poverty line todemarcate ‘poor’ and ‘non-poor’ households. Under the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) as initiated in June 1997, each poor family wasentitled to 10 kgs of food grains per month at specially subsidized prices. This was expected to benefitabout 6 crore poor families. The state-wise poverty estimates of the Planning Commission based on themethodology of the ‘Expert Group’ on estimation of proportion and number of poor chaired by late Prof.Lakdawala defined the number of poor in each state. The identification of the poor is done by the states.The Committee did not give identification guidelines. The thrust is to include only the really poor andvulnerable sections of the society such as landless agricultural labourers, marginal farmers, ruralartisans/craftsmen such as potters, tappers, weavers, blacksmiths, carpenters etc, in the rural areas and slumdwellers and persons earning their livelihood on a daily basis in the informal sector like porters, rickshawpullers and hand cart pullers, fruit and flower sellers on the pavements etc. in urban areas. Keeping in viewthe consensus on increasing the allocation of food grains to BPL category and to better target the foodsubsidy, Government of India increased the allocation to BPL families from 10 kgs. to 20 kgs. Of foodgrains per family per month at 50% of economic cost from April 1, 2000. The allocation for APL wasretained at the same level as at the time of introduction of TPDS but the Central Issue Prices for APL wasfixed at 100% of economic cost from that date so that entire consumer subsidy could be directed for thebenefit of BPL population.The Targeted PDS differs from earlier variants of the PDS in certain key respects.• Targeting:- The most typical feature of the TPDS in relation to previous policy in India is the introductionof targeting, specifically, the division of the entire population into below-poverty-line (BPL) and above-poverty-line (APL) categories, based on the poverty line defined by the Planning Commission. The twogroups are treated differently in terms of quantities and prices. With this, the Government of India initiateda policy of narrow targeting to households with incomes below the official poverty line.• Dual (multiple) prices:- The second unique feature is that the PDS now has dual central issue prices:prices for BPL consumers and prices for APL consumers. A third price, introduced in 2001, is forbeneficiaries of the Antyodaya Scheme (a scheme for the ‘poorest of the poor’, in which food grain isdistributed with an additional subsidy). In March 2000, a major policy change occurred when it wasannounced in the budget that central issue prices -- that is, prices at which the Food Corporation of India(FCI) sells grain for the PDS to State governments -- will be set at half the ‘economic cost’ incurred by theFCI for BPL households and at the full ‘economic cost’ for APL households.3 In short, there was to be nosubsidy for APL households.• Centre-state control: - A third significant feature of the Targeted PDS is that it has changed centre-stateresponsibilities with respect to entitlements and allocations to the PDS. PDS is designed and managed byState governments, and state governments differ with respect to entitlements, the commodities offered, theretail price (state issue price) and so on. In the past, the State governments demanded a certain allocationfrom the central pool, and based on certain factors, most importantly, past utilization and the requirementsof statutory rationing, the central government allocated grain and other commodities to States for theirpublic distribution systems. With the TPDS, the size of the BPL population and the entitlements for theBPL population are decided by the central government. And the allocations for APL populations oradditional allocations for BPL and APL populations are decided somewhat arbitrarily based on pastutilization and demands from States.3.2.1.Targeted PDS and its impact:Assessment :Targeted PDS has not been effective in ensuring food security to the needy. According to a PerformanceEvaluation by the Planning commission (PEO 2005), ‘the transition from universal PDS to TPDS hasneither benefited the poor, nor helped reduce budgetary food subsidies.’There are many problems with the Targeted PDS; the most relevant among them are the following. First,targeting has led to the large-scale exclusion of genuinely needy persons from the PDS. Secondly, targeting 243

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Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online)Vol.2, No.4, 2011has affected the functioning and economic viability of the PDS network adversely and led to a collapse ofthe delivery system. Thirdly, TPDS has failed to achieve the objective of price stabilization through transferof cereals from surplus to deficit regions of the country. Lastly, there are reports of large-scale leakagesfrom the PDS, that is, of grain being diverted and not reaching the final consumer.Exclusion and targeting errors:The argument put forth by the advocates of Targeted PDS is that the scheme will be able to reach the pooror needy more effectively than the Universal PDS. There are two types of errors that occur in any targetedwelfare programme due to imperfect measurement. Errors of wrong exclusion (Type I errors) refer to theexclusion of genuinely poor or deserving households from a programme. Errors of wrong inclusion (TypeII errors) refer to the inclusion of non-eligible persons or households in a programme. Any discussion ofthe merits or demerits of targeting has to recognize that there is a trade-off between the two types of errors.Universal programmes are likely to have low errors of exclusion but high errors of inclusion. On the otherhand, a programme targeted to a specific group is likely to have a low error of wrong inclusion, but maylead to a high error of exclusion.[Insert Table-2 here]The first stage of exclusion is of households that do not possess a ration card. Table 2 classifies allhouseholds into four types depending on the type of ration card held: Antyodaya card, BPL card, ‘othercard’ (mainly APL) and no card. Excluding the States of the North East, the proportion of households with‘no card’ was highest in Orissa -- where 33 per cent of rural households did not possess any type of rationcard. Thus, in a State characterized as ‘severely food insecure’ (MSSRF 2001), one-third of ruralhouseholds were outside the purview of the PDS. In another 10 States, more than 20 per cent of ruralhouseholds did not possess a ration card. Tamil Nadu is a special case as it is the only State with universalPDS and I shall discuss it separately.[Insert Table-3 here]In Table 3, we have clubbed together households with no ration card and ‘other’ or APL card as thepopulation effectively excluded from the PDS. In the overwhelming majority of States, 60 per cent or moreof the population was effectively excluded from the PDS. This includes the BIMARU States, the relativelybackward States of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. It also includes States like Keralawhich was a model for the rest of the country before the Targeted PDS was introduced. The exceptionswere Andhra Pradesh and Karnnataka – the only two States in which a simple majority of rural householdspossessed BPL or Antyodaya cards.It is important to understand the implication of this large-scale exclusion of households from the PDS. TheReport based on National Sample Survey (NSS) data provides us with information on possession of card byoccupational type of household, social group, land ownership and expenditure level. From these data it ispossible to identify the characteristics of households that are excluded from the PDS. stThese data from the NSS 61 round make it quite clear that a large proportion of agricultural labour andother labour households, of households belonging to the Scheduled castes and tribes, of households withlittle or no land and households in the lowest expenditure classes, are excluded from the PDS today. Theexceptions are first, Tamil Nadu, which is the only State to have a universal system of PDS, and secondly,the two southern States of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where coverage of households under the BPLand Antyodaya categories is high.Quantity :Regarding quantities purchased from the PDS, it is quite difficult to compare purchases by BPL cardhouseholds with those by APL card households since the latter are unlikely to be regular users of the PDSat current prices. Therefore, focus has been made on BPL and Antyodaya card households to assess the stextent to which PDS contributed to household consumption, using the data from the NSS 61 Round. 244

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Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online)Vol.2, No.4, 2011 Though there is worsening condition in the system of rationing, the monthly consumption of grain (riceand wheat) purchased from the PDS was greater than consumption from other sources for BPL andAntyodaya card households in 7 States – Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra,Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Tripura. ([Insert Table-4 here]Grain purchased from the PDS contributed 20 kg or more to household consumption each month inHimachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu& Kashmir, Karnataka, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu,Tripura and Uttar Pradesh. Further, the PDS contributed 15 kg or more of grain to a household each monthin a total of 17 States. In short, BPL and Antyodaya households purchase significant quantities of foodgrain from the PDS. The extensive mis-classification of needy households as APL households isundoubtedly contributing to the nutritional insecurity of our population.Viability of fair price shops :The economic viability of fair price shops has been badly affected by the exclusion of APL population fromthe PDS. The virtual exclusion of the APL population has led to a big decline in off take. For example, totalgrain (rice and wheat) distributed through the PDS fell from 20.8 million tonnes in 1991 to 11.3 milliontonnes in 2001 (Economic Survey, different years). With fewer ration cards to serve, lower turnover andupper bounds on the margins that can be charged to BPL consumers, the net profits of fair price shopowners and dealers are lower under the TPDS than before. Since there are economies of scale here, forinstance, with respect to transport, the distribution of smaller quantities is likely to make many shopsunviable. When fair price shops are economically viable, there are fewer incentives to cheat.Regional distribution of food grain :With a view to ensuring price stabilization in the country by transferring grain from cereals-surplus tocereals-deficit regions, PDS Had started its journey but unfortunately Targeted PDS has not been able toserved this objective because under TPDS, the demand for cereals is no longer determined by Stategovernments (based on their requirements, and in practical terms on past utilization) but on allocationsdecided by the central government (based on poverty estimates prepared by the Planning Commission). Thenew system of allocation, as pointed out by the High Level Committee on Long Term Grain Policy (GOI,2002), has led to imbalances between actual allocations and ‘allocations necessary to meet the differencebetween cereals production and requirement’.In a universal PDS, automatic stabilization of prices is ensured, as the demand for grain from fair priceshops increases at times when the gap between the PDS price and the market price rises. In the new system,however, with APL priced out of the PDS and BPL quotas low and fixed, the role of the PDS as anautomatic stabilizer has been weakened.Leakages :Leakage is one of the crucial problems in PDS system in India which has weakened the current system ofdelivery at different stages. As the PEO (2005) points out, ‘the share of leakages in off take from the centralpool is abnormally high, except in the states of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu’. The study goes on toidentify factors associated with relatively low leakages at the fair price shop (FPS) level and concludes that‘general awareness of the beneficiaries, high literacy and strong grassroots-level organizations (particularlyPanchayat Raj Institutions) have helped states like West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh in reducing FPSlevel leakage, which in the case of Tamil Nadu, it is the elimination of private retail outlets’. Leakagescannot be lowered by further narrowing targeting. Reducing leakages requires political commitment andparticipation of the people in the delivery process.4. Suggestions for restructuring PDS:To make the implementation of TPDS more effective, it is desirable that the following points may be takeninto consideration: 245

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Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online)Vol.2, No.4, 20111) Items other than rice and wheat need to be excluded from the purview of TPDS. The main objective ofproviding food subsidy to the poor is to ensure food security. Rice and wheat are the two commodities,which are eagerly sought after as basic necessities bythe poor in India. Provision of food subsidies should be restricted to these two commodities.2) Items such as sugar should be kept outside the purview of PDS. Sugar should be decontrolled and thesystem of levy on sugar should be discontinued.3) It is argued that if production of coarse cereals, is encouraged in dryland areas environment damage likedegradation of soil can be checked to some extent. However, there is difficulty in supplying coarse cerealsthrough PDS and bringing them under the cover of food subsidy. The average shelf-life of coarse grains islimited making them unsuitable for long term storage and distribution under PDS. Inclusion of coarsecereals under PDS cannot be taken up as a national level program since there is no standard variety ofcoarse grain. But initiatives from the side of state governments are possible catering to the needs of specificlocalities.4) Kerosene oil is also a commodity supplied through PDS and intended for the poor. But this is an itemwhere there occurs large scale illicit diversion where the benefits meant for the poor are cornered bymiscreants and subsidized kerosene is used for adulteration with diesel. Subsidy on kerosene while itbenefits the poor to a certain extent is very often cornered by the rich and subsidized kerosene ultimatelyends up being used for commercial purposes. A study carried out by Indira Gandhi Institute forDevelopment Research, Mumbai shows that there is huge leakage of kerosene meant for PDS in the fourstates covered by the study. It is irrational, therefore to continue to subsidise kerosene at rates that are sohigh and continue its distribution through the PDS. Subsidy on kerosene should be gradually phased out byraising its supply price under PDS while at the same time eliminating all domestic central (e.g. cenvat) andstate (e.g. sales) taxes on kerosene so as to encourage private supply of kerosene through normaldistribution channels. Alternately, if kerosene is to be retained under PDS the extent of subsidy givenshould be reduced below 30% so that there is less incentive for diversion and for adulteration with diesel.5) All further attempts to include more and more commodities under the coverage of food subsidy shouldbe resisted.6) At the same time, the FPS(fair price shop) should be permitted to sell all commodities (other than riceand wheat) at full market prices through PDS outlets so as to ensure their economic viability.7) The coverage of TPDS and food subsidy should be restricted to the population below the poverty line.For the people above the poverty line who have the purchasing power to buy food the requirement is onlyto ensure availability of food grains at a stable price in the market. There is no need to extend the coverageof food subsidy to this population. Stability in food grain prices should be ensured through the maintenanceof a buffer stock and open market operations of the FCI. However, during the present period when thereexist huge surplus stocks of food grains with FCI it may be necessary to continue below “economic cost”supplies of cereals under PDS to the APL population as a temporary measure.8) With the liberalization of external sector, the operation of the buffer stock can be supplemented bytimely exports and imports and effectively this will mean that the buffer stock required will be smaller insize.9) Ration cards should not be used by the administration as an identification card for various purposes. Therole should be assigned to multi-purpose identity cards in the future. Many people get ration cards issuedonly to establish their identity before the administration.10) There are several plan schemes in operation, which are in the nature of welfare or income transferschemes where distribution of food grains is involved. Such schemes, all serving the same purpose, couldbe merged and some sort of convergence among them could be evolved.11). Community grain banks can be set up in such areas wherefrom the needy can borrow grain in times ofneed and repay the grain after the emergency is over. Natural disasters such as earthquakes also create 246

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Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development www.iiste.orgISSN 2222-1700 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2855 (Online)Vol.2, No.4, 2011conditions in which emergency assistance must be provided by the government and the administration hasto be alert to such spurts in hunger. Finally a minimal amount of social security must be provided to thosewho are old, sick or disabled and cannot partake of work even if it is available. Special schemes mustensure that they do not go hungry5. Conclusions:The above discussion shows that policy making and implementation have failed miserably in respect oftackling the crisis of mass under-nutrition. A consistent set of policies in the mid-1960s regardingproduction, storage and distribution had been introduced to address the problem of food insecurity. Thesepolicies had some success, especially in respect of accelerating the production of food grain and in respectof ensuring a period of low and stable prices for cereals. But with the introduction of economicliberalization in 1991, policies to address food security have been weakened, and have had a very damagingimpact on consumption and nutrition. At present, the situation is even more serious with the galloping highrate of inflation . The period of economic liberalization has seen a relentless setback to some of our major programmes offood security. Three key objectives of economic reforms – and these are stated explicitly in many policydocuments, including the annual Economic Surveys -- have been to reduce food subsidies, to leavedistribution to the market and to undermine food policy intervention and subsidies to the ‘poorest of thepoor’. As a matter of fact, the absolute and relative size of the food subsidy has reduced gradually.Between 2002-03 and 2006-07, the food subsidy bill of the Government of India shrunk in absolutenominal and real terms. As a share of GDP, food subsidies fell from 0.99 per cent in 2002-03 to 0.6 percent in 2006-07. One of the key instruments of food policy in India has been the public distribution system (PDS). It hasbeen found that the policy of narrow targeting introduced as part of liberalization has failed to address theproblem of chronic hunger. Therefore, the Targeted PDS has led to the large-scale exclusion of genuinelyneedy persons from the PDS. It has affected the functioning and economic viability of the PDS networkadversely and led to a collapse of the delivery system. It has failed to achieve the objective of pricestabilization through the transfer of cereals from surplus to deficit regions of the country. It is believed to be true that given the balance between grain supply and demand, the persistence ofregions of surplus and deficit grain production in the country, the underdeveloped nature of food grainmarkets in parts of the country, and under nutrition on a mass scale, there is still need for price stabilizationnationally. The PDS plays a major role in this objective by ensuring access to certain minimum quantitiesof grain throughout the country and in all seasons at uniform prices. This goal is best achieved by revertingto a system of allocations of grain at uniform issue prices with universal coverage. At the same time,recognizing differences in needs and problems across states, States may be given greater flexibility indesigning their food security systems, including in the use of the grain allocated for the PDS. Enlightenpolitics is necessary to improve the delivery systems of the government.Transparancy and accountability inthe functioning of the states should be followed by social audit.ReferencesAhluwalia,Deepak (1993), Public Distribution of Food in India : Coverage, targeting and leakages, FoodPolicy, Vol.18,no1,pp 33-54.Bhaskar Dutta, Bharat Ramaswami(2001), Targeting and efficiency in the Public Distribution System,Economic and Political weekly,March,5,2001.Bapna, S. L. (1990). ‘Food, Security through the PDS: The Indian Experience’. In D. S. Tyagi and V. S.Vyas (eds). Increasing Access to Food: The Asian Experience. New Delhi: Sage Publications.Cornia, G. A., and Frances Stewart (1993). ‘Two Errors of Targeting’. Journal of InternationalDevelopment, 5(5), 459-490.Dreze, Jean, and Amartya Sen. (1989). The Political Economy of Hunger, Vol. 1. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 247